The present invention relates to an improvement in a lawn mower.
A known lawn mower carries a pair of right and left grass collecting containers connected to a mower body through projections formed at opposite top ends of a pipe frame of inverted U-shape extending upwardly from the mower body. Each of the grass collecting containers includes a mouthpiece extending along peripheries of a top opening thereof The mouthpiece includes a bracket defining an engaging bore engageable with the projection of the pipe frame, and a position setting mechanism for sandwiching outer peripheries of the pipe frame having the inverted Ushape. (See, for example, the Japanese utility model application laid open under No. 60-94037 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,589 251.)
With the above construction, however, the load of each grass collecting container acts through the bracket on one point of the mouthpiece, the mouthpiece supporting the container and being supported in a cantilever fashion. As grass clippings accumulate in the container, the mouthpiece becomes deformed to develop a space between the mouthpiece and a cover placed on the container, through which space grass clippings often leak
It is possible to provide a strong mouthpiece against such deformation, but then the mouthpiece itself must be large. The bracket and the projection associated with the mouthpiece have to be large and strong also.
Furthermore, the known lawn mower has a grass discharge duct extending rearwardly from a grass cutting unit to be connected at a rear end thereof to the grass collecting containers. The rear end of the duct extends into a space above the containers through a bore defined in an openable and closable cover placed on the containers.
Since in this conventional construction the duct simply extends through the bore, dust and grass clippings may leak through a gap between the duct and the bore. It is therefore necessary to fill the gap with an element such as a rubber plate. The rubber plate is fixed at a proximal end thereof to the duct or to a cover wall defining the bore, with a distal end or ends thereof just contacting the duct or the cover wall to which the rubber plate is not fixed. The duct is movable with reaping height variations of the grass cutting unit, and the rubber plate cannot follow this movement of the duct. Consequently, the provision of the rubber plate or the like is inadequate for positively stopping the dust and grass clippings leaking with conveying air flowing from the cutting unit.